Lesson Plan Template

Participants: __Greg Sinnett and Jennifer Ogo______

Date: __Spring 2014______Grade Level: _9th grade______

Lesson Title: __Ocean Currents______

Lesson Concept: Putting knowledge of ocean currents to practice.

Focus Question: _What good is it to know how water moves?

Teacher Does / Student Does
ENGAGE Step 4
Show the NASA “perpetual ocean” video and ask students to point out currents and make observations on what those currents are like.
Play the quiz game (allowing the students to work in groups of 5 or less) to review key concepts from the first 4 lessons.
Introduce and demonstrate the GNOME simulation tool that real NOAA oceanographers use by allowing students to follow along with you on their own computers. / Step 2
In groups, students answer quiz questions using their knowledge from this unit.
In groups, students use a real NOAA simulation tool (GNOME) to model a real event (the Santa Barbara oil spill of 1969) and predict what will happen under changing conditions.
EXPLORE Step 5
The lab is intended to allow students to explore the GNOME simulation tool. Guide students toward interesting simulations (for example simulating what happens under hurricane force winds, or if the currents change direction, or if they move to a region with strong tides).
Questions in the lab ask them to change wind speed or current direction – but the teacher may want to have the students ask their own questions to try in the simulation. / Step 3
Students make predictions of what will happen to spilled oil using both their knowledge from this unit and the GNOME simulation tool.
They then explore what happens when conditions are different (hurricane force winds, upwelling currents etc).
Students play with the model using real oceanographic tools to see what life as a NOAA disaster response team member is.
EXPLAIN Step 6
The quiz is designed to review key concepts. If students do not appear to understand one concept, the teacher should pause to re-teach this concept.
Before the lab, the teacher demonstrates the GNOME environment (please see the GNOME help file in the teacher resources) in front of the class with the students following along on their computers. / Step 1
Students synthesize what they know about density, thermohaline circulation, coriolis and wind-driven currents to answer quiz questions in groups.
Students predict what will happen to oil spilled in the Santa Barbara channel, and hypothesize how ocean and wind conditions will change the outcome.
EVALUATE
Check students’ responses to the quiz portion and listen in on their group discussions. This is the main form of evaluating students’ understanding of this unit.
The lab is intended to help the students explore how currents apply to oceanographers and what kinds of tools oceanographers use. However, the teacher should evaluate a student’s ability to predict what will happen based on their knowledge from this unit. / EXTEND
The last slide asks students to think of other applications people might have for knowing about ocean currents. (Some example responses may be: Knowing where river runoff and pollution goes, knowing where plankton accumulate, knowing where nutrients in the ocean are likely to be, knowing how local climate may be affected by the ocean… etc)